Alectinib trial ended early

Chugai’s “Alecensa” (alectinib) J-ALEX trial stopped early because the trial demonstrated statistically significant improvement in a Phase 3 in Japan in a direct comparison with crizotinib. The trial does not appear to address the question of which sequence of the two drugs is better. Not clear if non Japanese regulators will accept these results on their own in changing the status of Alectinib in other markets given the relative homogeneity of the trial population. A similar phase 3 trial is ongoing outside of Japan.